Capt. Picard: I sincerely hope that this is the last time that I find myself here.
Q: You just don't get it, do you, Jean-Luc? The trial never ends. We wanted to see if you had the ability to expand your mind and your horizons. And for one brief moment, you did.
Capt. Picard: When I realized the paradox.
Q: Exactly. For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. *That* is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.
One of the things that sticks out to me when it comes to the early Church Fathers, as well as the great mystics of the Christian tradition, is how much of what they were doing was like what Q is talking about in this exchange. The exploration of new ideas, of new possibilities, and the delving into the deepest of mysteries. God was a vast undiscovered country that these people were excited to explore. So much of this stuff was like onto-psycho-cosmo-theology. In meditation, in scripture study, God can become a partner that helps us learn more about us, about Him, and about the world we live in.
Early Christianity had the excitement of a new discovery. But most Christians nowadays would deny that we can discover anything new about God. Revelation stopped 1900 years ago, and now all there is, is waiting. The only time the thrill of discovery is experienced within Christianity is when someone learns something new about the Bible itself. People get so pumped when you teach them some new Biblical fact, because this is the limit of the spirit of discovery in Christianity for most people. And whatever you discover about the Bible, most people cannot abide it if it challenges their current understanding of God. For that remains hard and fast, unchanging and limited to what they have always been taught. Because of this, the spirit of discovery and exploration in the modern world seems for most people like it is the purview of science alone. Is it any wonder, then, that science has replaced God for many people? Heck, there are a lot of neo-pagan religions that seem mor possessed of a sense of discovery than modern Christianity is. That is why I appreciate Grant Morrison's religious perspective even as I disagree with it.
To me, this is a denial of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was given to us so revelation and the process of divine discovery could continue. Of course, the Holy Spirit plays little role in the life of the mainline western church, and that could be part of the problem. But I believe that since God is Infinite, there should always be more to discover about Him. Since we are in relationship with Him, we should expect the opportunity to plumb those depths. It is this exploration and sense of discovery that keeps me coming back to the religious life. I feel I am personally learning new things about God, about life, about everything. It is the reason I came to love theology as I have always loved science. If people really want to recapture the Spirit of the early, they would do well to re-examine what we really have to offer the world of the mind. After all, we are called to love God with all of it.
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